


Fire Nation Red, Winter White, and Ocean Blue

by sometypeofbirthstone



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Bisexual Sokka (Avatar), Gay Zuko (Avatar), Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Rated teen for swearing, Sokka POV, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, aged up by like 9 years they’re all in their 20s, ehehehehehhe sorry about that, except one angst riddled Zuko POV, moon spirit Sokka., no smut but it’s heavily implied, oh yeah also Katara and Sokka are the prince and princess of the northern water tribe, which means...., you get the point :)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-11-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:41:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25237882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sometypeofbirthstone/pseuds/sometypeofbirthstone
Summary: Sokka accidentally falls into an ice sculpture with one (1) prince of the fire nation, Zuko. This leads to a forced diplomatic friendship to a genuine one and then they becomes lovers???This is specifically a Red, White and Royal Blue AU! It will not be exactly like the book i.e. some events compiled into one to save time and no smut because I'm a C H I L D so yeah!! If you see similarities that's why!!!!~indefinite hiatus~Sorry! I might get back to this during summer maybe!
Relationships: Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Aang/Katara (Avatar), Mai & Zuko (Avatar), Mai/Suki (Avatar), Minor or Background Relationship(s), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 55
Kudos: 326





	1. Sculpturegate

**Author's Note:**

> I AM AWARE that this is not a modern fic *however* I kinda needed them to use phones and have an established press system for sake of the plot. This fic is based off of Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuinston and a couple of tumblr posts i saw
> 
> Betaed by the lovely @aseaofmemoriesandstorms (go check them out, y'all)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokka and Zuko are dumbasses and ruin a diplomatic event (its mainly Sokkas fault)
> 
> aka: Sokka is clumsy and Zuko is unbalanced

“Are you sure you’re alright?” Katara asks as she blows on her steaming Jasmine tea. “You don't really seem to be enjoying yourself. ”

“I’m fine,” Sokka grumbles, dodging Earth representatives left and right as he tries to find their assigned table. “Why are there so many people here? And why do they all want my opinion on swamp creatures?”

Katara rolls her eyes. “This is an official nations summit. They want to talk about the plan to integrate the swampy tribes in the Earth Kingdom with the Northern and Southern Water Tribes. Which is an idea that you came up with at 2am after you pulled two all-nighters in a row, and wasn't brought up again until now, because you wrote it down on an official document.”

“My bad.” Sokka finally finds a table that has some familiar faces.

“Hey, Prince Boomerang.” Toph greets him with a smile and a nod of her head. 

“I remember when I was only Captain Boomerang,” Sokka says with a sigh, sitting down at the table and setting down his jasmine tea. 

Toph shrugs, propping her slipperless feet on the table as she leans back in her chair. “Suki was looking for you a couple of minutes ago. Couldn’t tell where she went, though. There’s too many people here and it’s a bit overwhelming.”

“Tell me about it, if one more person asks me about the possible dangers of Possum Chickens, I'm going to smash the ice sculpture. ”

The ice sculpture in question was crafted by skilled water benders of the Southern Tribe who figured out ways to harness their waterbending powers so they could create breathtaking sculptures. It was crafted in the shape of a Buffalo Yak native to the northern tribes, a Snow Leopard Caribou native to the Southern Water tribe, and a Catgator native to the Foggy Swamp. All three animals were carved in a circle holding hands. It is supposed to represent the unification of all three tribes but Sokka just thinks it looks tacky. 

“Good riddance,” Toph says, putting her feet back on the ground and sitting (somewhat) upright in her chair, “I can’t see but from what people have told me it’s uglier than a swampy bog monster.”

Sokka barks a laugh and is about to say more when Katara silences him with a glare.

“The ice sculpture is priceless. We don’t have our benders do labor without pay and it took them almost a week to complete. I think they did good for all of their hard work, and if you smash that sculpture dad won’t let you make a press appearance for at least a week.” Katara huffs, crossing her arms.

“Excuse you, the people love me! Smashed ice sculpture or not, there’s bound to also be backlash against my rugged good looks not appearing in the public for a week. I’m the golden child, the heir to the chiefdom, and the fan-favorite.” Sokka flips what hair he could, since most of it is tied up in his warrior-wolf’s tail and the rest were in two neat dreadlocks on the left side of his head looped with deep blue beads, symbolizing his princedom, and his title as heir of the chiefdom.

“I’m right here,” Katara grumbles, “and I think it’s time for the child who knows how the press works to spread our info if you excuse me.” 

Katara stands up from the table and leaves Sokka and Toph alone, which is never a good idea. Tonight is no different as within two minutes of trying and failing to have a civil conversation with Toph that didn’t revolve around fake snide comments and mocking the other leaders attending this event, Sokka finds his eyes falling on Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation.

“I’m going to go talk to him.” He stands up, about to approach Zuko when a hand stops him.

“I can’t even see him and I know who you’re talking about. Don’t. No conversation with him ends well and you know it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I’m just going for a friendly chat.” Sokka pulls his sleeve out of Toph’s grip and is about to make a break for it when she stops him again.

“Really? You’re choosing to ignore what happened during the Sun Festival? The Earth Kingdom wedding? Any diplomatic encounter the Water Tribe has had with the Fire Nation? I can’t even list the disasters on my hands. Or my hands plus my toes. That’s more than 20 disasters, Sokka, you’re playing with fire and you’re going to get burned.” 

“There have only been 19 disasters. I have a list. And that list isn’t going to get any longer tonight, I promise.” After Toph lets go of his arm, Sokka makes a beeline to Zuko.

Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation is distant at best. Both being raised as royalty, Sokka knows what kind of scrutiny the Prince was put under at a young age. Although, Sokka didn’t even know Zuko existed until eleven years ago. They never interacted as kids, and children of the Fire Lord were the nation’s best kept secret. Which is why it was so surprising when word of Zuko’s banishment spread across the nations. 

Zuko was only thirteen at the time, and was banished from the only place he had ever known along with his uncle. The press initially staged it as a “spiritual vacation” but that changed when it ended up lasting three years. To this day, nobody outside the Royal Family and court of the Fire Nation truly knows why Prince Zuko was banished and how he was allowed back in, three years later. Most don't even know where he disappeared to, all those years ago.

A hand claps Sokka on the shoulder, catching him by surprise. Mentally, Sokka prepares himself for the boring job that is explaining simple topics to the advisors of all nations (although lately the ones in the Earth Kingdom were giving him a run for his money and sanity.)

“For the last time, I don’t know anything about Possum chickens, ” Sokka groans as he turns around to face a short girl, clad in a Kyoshi warrior armour.

“You aren’t a Earth Kingdom advisor.” 

“Obviously not, idiot.”

“Suki!!” Sokka cries as he throws his arms around her for a quick hug. “I haven’t seen you in months! How’s the new recruit?”

“A bit of a handful, honestly, she’s really good at Chi blocking and light on her feet but she has a lot to learn about Tessenjutsu.” She takes two cups of tea off of a passing tray and gives one to Sokka as they wander through the crowd. “I’m running security with the rest of the warriors tonight but I have time for a five minute break. So, what’s new with you? Got any potential suitors?” 

“Ha ha, very funny.” He rolls his eyes and sips his tea. At the age of 16, both Sokka and Katara became eligible for marriage. Normally, only Katara would get engaged at that age but since Sokka is the heir to the Northern Tribe chiefdom, it was necessary that he got married first and secured the continuation of the monarchy.

Normally, (now at age 23) he and Katara would have been engaged and married respectively for many years. However, Hakoda, the chief of the Northern Water Tribe, found that arranged marriages for both of his kids were not right, and if they wanted to properly carry on the bloodline they both had to find people that they themselves deemed fit for marriage. 

Because of this, once Sokka turned 16, he was regularly presented with suitors to date and “get to know” before deciding if they were “the one”. Unfortunately, Sokka didn’t want to get married. Because of his reluctance to marry, he was increasingly picky with his options. And because of his refined tastes of potential suitors, the royal matchmakers gave up looking and agreed that if someone was destined to find Sokka, they would in due time. (They also ruled that if he didn’t find a possible suitor by his 26th birthday that an arranged marriage will be the only option but he tried not to think about that. ) 

“Thankfully, no. This entire suitor thing is weird. Every single girl that I talk to casually has had at least one gossip page article written about them.” 

“What do you think the next article about us would say?” Suki asks, finishing her tea and putting the empty cup on a passing tray.

“You’re a lesbian,” Sokka deadpans. Granted, they dated once until they realized that it wasn’t going to work and then about a year later, Suki came out. The gossip articles had a time with that one. 

“Humor me,” She says with a soft smile, “Also, I have to get back to my security staff in about a minute so be quick.” 

Sokka taps his chin in thought. “Hmmm.. let’s go with ‘Kyoshi warrior and Prince Sokka seen at the Royal Water tribe banquet drinking tea and having a laugh. Could warrior Suki and the prince be rekindling their steamy romance?’ On the word “romance” Sokka wiggles his eyebrows and grins in a way that always makes Suki smile. 

This time wasn’t different as she lets out a giggle and pulls him in for another quick hug before disappearing into the crowd.

Sokka is sad to see her go, but understands that she, like him, has more important duties at the moment. Remembering his plot to interrogate Prince Zuko, he glances around the room but is sad to see no scar faced prince of the fire nation in sight. Already subjecting himself to the three-plus hours of torture via boring speeches about his regrettably good ideas, which he is going to face when he finds his table and the banquet formally starts, he turns around and promptly trips over his own slippered foot.

In the time it took him and Suki to meander around the room, they had landed themselves close to the ice sculpture, which he was about to crash face first into if he didn’t find something, or someone, to steady him soon. Naturally, he grabs onto the nearest arm he could find. Sadly, that arm belonged to one Prince of the Fire nation.

Surprised, Zuko, instead of keeping Sokka from crashing into the statue, falls with him and they both shatter the meticulously crafted sculpture, lying in a heap on the floor.

The banquet hall falls silent.

Groaning on the floor, Sokka covers his face with his hands in an attempt to hide the embarrassed blush quickly spreading across his high cheekbones.

Laying down next to him, Zuko mutters quietly enough so only Sokka could hear him. “My Father is going to kill me.”


	2. Sokka you insomniac go to sleep.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Katara, Toph, and Suki play bingo (this will make sense i PROMISE), Sokka has to deal with *dramatic sigh* being diplomatic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just realized i didnt post the first chapter as part of a multichaptered fic oops :/ but thats fixed now and be ready because the third chapter is almost done :))
> 
> EDIT: this is like 3 weeks later dont mind me. Uhm so i decided to rewrite the entire fic to be in present tense because my dumbass wrote this all in past tense *facepalm* ANY ways, that leaves me 5 complete chapters and 4 in progress chapters to edit :) thats ~30 pages on the google doc :) I :) am :) fine :)))))

The rest of the night goes by in a haze. Sokka still has to sit through three hours of boring speeches, but none of the words seemed to stick to his brain. He is just sitting there, stewing in his self-doubt and hiding it by eating his Giant Sea Crab quietly.

After the banquet was over, all leaders from other nations, along with those hailing from the Swampy Tribe and the Southern Water Tribe, leave on their respective airships and flying bison. As soon as the palace was empty save for the servants, chefs, royal family members, and the rest of the palace staff, Sokka is rushed into the war room which only contains his dad, Chief Hakota, his sister, Katara, the royal advisor, Liama, and the head of security, Itudi.

“Why are we having a meeting in the war room? I thought I didn’t fuck it up that badly.” Sokka says nervously, bouncing his foot against the icy tile of the palace floor.

“This is damage control, my prince,” Liama says, furiously tapping her pen on her clipboard. “What you did at the party didn’t go unnoticed and rumors are already spreading.”

“Does this mean a week of radio silence?” Katara asks, worrying her lip as she discreetly tries to take out her bingo board. 

Ever since Zuko and Sokka's fifteenth incident, Toph, Suki, and Katara had all made custom bingo boards with each square on the board representing some sort of incident or result of said incidents that they expected to occur. The initial prize was bragging rights and Sokka's bruised ego served on a silver platter, but had since turned into a pretty decent pile of money. Sokka wasn't allowed to create a board or see what scenarios were on each board because they were worried he would swing the game. 

“On the contrary, since our relationship with the Fire Nation is anything but concrete, Prince Zuko is already en route to a formal apology statement addressed to the Southern Water Tribe members who created the sculptures. rince Sokka is expected to arrive as well and will leave shortly in an hour.” Liama turns to Sokka “you have about 45 minutes to pack before you have to meet us along with your personal security guard, Kanu, for an airship ride down to the Southern Water Tribe.” 

_Fuck._

“Also, since keeping a good relationship with the Fire Nation is our top priority, you and Prince Zuko need to look like the best of friends from this day on, until the entire sculpture gate business blows over.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Sokka stands up from his chair so fast it falls to the floor. “You expect me to be buddy-buddy with Prince Zuko? The pretentious jerk who thinks he’s better than everyone else? That’s borderline impossible.”

“With all due respect, my Prince, this is a time for miracles.” Liama puts her clipboard back onto the table. “You and Princess Katara are dismissed. Kanu should help you pack your bags and make sure you make it to the airship safely. ”

“I don’t think you’ll be able to do this without losing your cool on live television.” Katara tells him as they both walk down the hall to their rooms. 

“Just because of that, I'm gonna become best friends with this asshole out of spite.” Sokka bites back as he enters his room and closes the door behind him.

Thirty minutes later, Sokka’s bags are packed and their airship takes to the skies. 

**Bandit 🖕**

**Having fun on your airship?**

How did you know?

**Katara texted me. I almost have a bingo.**

Of course you do.

**:)**

ANYways, I’m bored. Care to entertain a prince during his five hour long voyage?

**Sorry, boomerang, sleep calls me.**

Worst friend ever.  
_read, 1:45 am_

Sokka turns off his phone and glances at The Binder. 

The Binder is full of little factoids about the Fire Nation monarchy and on the Royal Family. His one job before arriving at the Southern Water Tribe is to memorize the information on Prince Zuko’s page, which really wasn’t that hard to do. The Fire Nation really didn’t like people knowing about the Royal Family so Zuko’s page is filled with boring shit that was 100% fake. It really didn’t help Sokka’s view of him. If anything, he looked about 50% more of an asshole who purposely avoids Sokka like the plague, and when Sokka does manage to corner him into a conversation, he ignores him. 

Zuko's page starts with a picture of him, unsmiling, that had the caption “Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, aged 21 in this photo, taken 104 AG”. Sokka rolls his eyes, skipping down to the segment of the page that talked about Prince Zuko's interests and hobbies. Prince Zuko enjoys practicing his firebending and combat skills and blah blah blah blah blah….

“I'm going to sleep!” He announces, standing to leave the main room of the airship and move to his smaller, more secluded private chambers. 

“Have you memorized the page?” Kanu asks, glancing up from his crossword puzzles and gesturing to the chair in front of him when Sokka nods. “Sit. I'm supposed to quiz you.” He takes a wrinkled list out of his left pocket, putting on his reading glasses as he clears his throat. “When was he born?”

“83 AG.”

“Best Friend?”

“Mai.”

“How did he get his scar?”

“Accident during his fire bending training when he was seven.”

“Favorite color?”

“Fire Nation colors so red, gold, and black.”

“Skills and Hobbies?”

“Firebending and combat training, specifically with dual broadswords.”

“Status?”

“Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation, heir to his father's throne and legacy.”

“You’re done, go get some sleep. We have a long flight ahead of us.” Kanu turns his attention back to his crossword puzzle and waves Sokka through. 

Sokka enters his private chambers and immediately collapses onto his bed. It is much more comfortable than the couch he had been laying on for the past two hours. He is ready to fall asleep right then and there, still in his clothes from the banquet, but decides to at least change into something more comfortable. Changing into his pajamas, he settles back into his bed and falls into a fitful sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone go subscribe to my lovely beta, @aseaofmemoriesandstorms !!! theyre amazing!! you wont regret it!!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are always appreciated! (I dont reply to them a lot, but I read all of them and sometimes reread them when I want some sweet serotonin.)


	3. Love Amongst the Dragons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A diplomatic encounter that totally doesn't involve the two of them being locked into a closet.

Sokka is tired. Yesterday did not bring what he expected to the table and he had to get up earlier than normal in order to get ready and look like he actually is a prince and not a 20 something-year-old doing his best. As he is waiting for his airship to land, he brakes down the last 24 hours in his head. 

-Yesterday, November 7th, he had spent nearly three straight hours getting ready for the banquet.  
-Then he spent five more hours attending the banquet, which ended in late evening.  
-After that he had an hour for a “war” meeting over a broken sculpture and a half hour to pack his stuff.  
-As soon as he was on the airship, ready for a 16 hour flight he was given a page about the fucking prince of the Fire Nation to memorize, which took him almost four hours.  
-He had slept for only five hours and spent the last three worrying.   
-He was exhausted.

Plastering on his charming and photoshoot ready smile, he steps out of the airship onto the raised platform to meet Zuko's handler, Raih, and the pompous Fire Nation asshole himself, Prince Zuko. 

“Trust me, I dont like this any more than you do.” Sokka mutters under his breath so only Zuko could hear. 

“What makes you think I don’t like this?” Zuko asks, confused. 

“You’ve been glaring at the path in front of you like you could melt it with your eyes. Can firebenders do that? That would be so cool.” Sokka mutters the last part, cursing his sleep-addled brain as he kicks a tiny pebble down the snowy path. 

“We can’t. And even if we could it sounds really stupid and useless.” Zuko says as he crosses his arms and turns away from Sokka with a huff. 

Sokka rolls his eyes, trying to come up with some sort of comeback when he and Zuko are called into the press tent to do an interview.

One interview and 15 minutes later, Zuko and Sokka are standing awkwardly behind the tent, waiting to be escorted to the main village where they will be issuing their formal apology. 

“That was easy,” Sokka says finally, remembering his semi-bet with Katara.

“It was? We know nothing about each other. Also you got half of my answers wrong,” Zuko says stiffly.

“Well I’m sorry if all the information I knew about you was on a _fact sheet_ that your _own nation_ provided. I was just going off of what the paper said.”

“Well, I guess I can’t argue with that. The Fire Nation isn’t one to talk about most things, _especially_ involving the royal family. It makes sense they gave you the blandest answers, it's for the ‘good of the monarchy’ or whatever,” Zuko says, rolling his eyes. 

“Ok then, prove it.”

“What?”

“Prove that you aren’t a cardboard cutout of a person and that you actually have interests, that you can feel emotion. You know? Like humans do.”

“I can feel and show emotion perfectly fine.”

“Really? Because the closest thing to an expression of your emotions that I have gotten during this entire conversation was an eye roll. Cmon, gimme a secret that only your friends know. After all, we have to play the part.”

Zuko huffs at that, blowing a strand of hair that had escaped his topknot out of his face. “You’d have to sign an NDA form.”

“Are you joking?” Sokka asks with a disbelieving laugh. 

“What part of any conversation I’ve had with you makes you think I would crack a joke, especially now?” 

“Boys, it’s time for your apology address, followed by a meet and greet at the kids hospital. After that, you can both be on your airships and on your way home.” Liama says, stepping out to usher them to the stage where they would be making their statement.

After the statement, Sokka and Zuko are sent in a private transport to the nearby children's hospital and are split up to interact with the kids individually.

Sokka found Zuko talking to a young girl in a secluded corner of the hospital.

He is smiling, a genuine smile that seemed to soften the hard edges of his face and the sharp glare of his golden eyes. They are in the middle of a conversation talking about a play.

“You’ve really seen Love Amongst the Dragons?” The young girl asks excitedly, clutching a copy of the book to her chest.

“It was my mom’s favorite play. She took us to see it every year.”

“My one wish is to play the Dragon Empress,” The young girl sighs. “I hope that one day I find my own Dragon Emperor.”

“We all have a Dragon Emperor waiting for us, I promise.”

The girl's eyes widen “Really? Have you met yours yet?”

“I'm not sure yet. We’ll see if they feel the same.”

Sokka tries not to scoff at that. It's hard to believe that the prince would have enough emotions to fall in love, let alone have someone love him back. 

“I have to go now. It was nice to meet you, Mari!” Zuko stands up and exits the room, freezing when he sees Sokka standing there. ”How much did you hear?” 

“Enough,” Sokka replied as they walked down the hall towards the exit. “Now I know one thing about you that wasn't on the paper. NDA not needed!”

Zuko sighs. “You have probably already signed several NDAs before we even met. I just said that so I didn’t have to tell you anything.”

“You’re right. I did have a lot more paperwork last night than usual. Huh.” 

Right as they pass a janitor closet door, an arrow flies past Zuko’s head, narrowly avoiding him. 

“Get down!” Kanu shouts, shoving both of them into the janitors closet. 

Sokka and Zuko tumble into the closet in a heap a la sculpturegate. 

“Why does every encounter with you end badly?” Zuko groans from his position on the floor.

Sokka tries to sit up and promptly whacks his head on a shelf. “Fuck!” he hisses, clutching the side of his head with his hand. 

“Are you okay?” Zuko asks with slight concern.

“Yeah, I just tried to sit up but I can't see for shit and I hit my head.”

A beat of silence.

“Should I firebend? So we can see?”

“Dude, that will set the entire cleaning supply contents of this closet on fire and I would prefer to not be burned into a crisp. ”

“Yeah, you’re right.” 

They lie there for a while in silence, occasionally peppered with jabs about who to blame if they actually died, when Kanu opens the door and lets them out. 

“What happened?” Sokka asks, stretching his arms and rolling his neck to relieve the tension that settled in after being on the floor of the janitors closet for an hour. Glancing over, he sees Zuko staring at him. Sokka smirks at him before looking away.

“There were a couple of kids on a field close to the hospital testing out an ‘arrow gun’ . It was successful, but the shot went wide,” Kanu says, voice clipped as he escorts Prince Sokka and Prince Zuko out of the hospital. “Nothing too serious, the kids were given a written warning that was sent home to their parents with a small fine, so all should be taken care of.”

Sokka, Kanu and Liama enter their enclosed transport that takes them back to their airship.

“Before you ask, no. I do not know where the kids live, and no. I will not be taking you to where I think the kids live so they can show you the arrow gun,” Kanu states, already pulling out his crossword puzzle book.

Sokka sighs. “You’re no fun,” He mutters as he stares out the window.

“Almost forgot,” Liama says, handing Sokka a slip of paper. “You are required to follow Prince Zuko on all of his official social media accounts. To keep up the charade that you two are friends.”

Sokka sighs, already pulling up to accounts to follow him. He is surprised to find that Zuko is already following all of his public socials. _Figures, he loves to brag about how he knows more about being royal than I do._ Sokka stares out the window, already dreading when their next forced-friendly encounter would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone go subscribe to my lovely beta, @aseaofmemoriesandstorms !!! they're amazing!! you wont regret it!!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are always appreciated! (I don't reply to them a lot, but I read all of them and sometimes reread them when I want some sweet serotonin.)


	4. Popsicles and a birthday party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Its Azulas birthday celebration week and you know what that means! Literally nobody that was invited wants to be there. (except for maybe Ty Lee.)

Their next diplomatic encounter ends up being less than a week after Sculpturegate, during Azula's birthday party. 

Sokka hates it. 

Everyone is just so uptight and stuffy about everything. At least he has Toph to suffer through it with him.

“This is so boooooringgggg,” She groans, leaning back in her seat. “Why aren’t Katara and Suki here? They’re the fun ones.” 

“Katara is not more fun than I am!” Sokka protests, “I’m the fun sibling. That's my job.”

“Fine. I just don’t understand why Twinkletoes is more important to her than us. We’re practically family at this point.” Toph angrily sips her tea.

Toph is right. Since she is never really allowed to make friends with people who weren’t of the same status she is, the only friends she was allowed to make when she was younger were Sokka and Katara. Later, after they had met Aang and Suki, all five of them kinda became their own separate family.

Sokka shrugs. “Aang could also be considered part of our family.”

“Whatever,” She snaps as she brought up a hand to scratch her head but stops herself, balling her hands into fists. “Can this banquet go any slower? The stylist put my hair up too tight and I’m in _agony._ These hair ornaments are digging into my scalp.” She shakes her head making the Bian Feng tremble and shimmer. 

“Try wearing traditional furs in the fire nation!” Sokka hisses “It’s like these people don’t know what air cooling systems are.”

Toph winces “Yeah, I can’t compete with that. Anyways, Sparky’s coming your way. Behind you.”

Sure enough, a couple moments later, Zuko is sitting down at the table. 

“Why are you so grouchy?” Sokka asks Toph, ignoring Zuko. 

“I’m bored, I didn't sleep at all last night, this dining hall is cozily warm, these chairs are super comfy, and I'm not allowed to sleep. This type of torture should be illegal.” 

“Tell me about it,” An unfamiliar voice says in a bored tone. Mai had somehow approached the table without the rest of them noticing. Sokka almost fell out of his chair. Almost.“I can’t believe you left me alone with her. I barely made it to this table before the first course started, you could have at least told me where you were off to.” Her statement was directed at Zuko, who shrugs. She sighs. “Whatever. It's not like it was that hard to find you.” 

Sokka sees Zukos eyes flicker over to Mai in a glare but she ignores him, focusing on Toph instead. _What was that all about?_ Sokka wonders. 

The rest of the conversation that night consists mostly of Toph trying to mess around with Mai and Zuko and neither of them understanding her jokes. Its only a minor disaster. _Why do no fire nation nobles or royals ever show emotion?_ Sokka glances at Toph. It reminds him eerily of how she acted around her own parents before she managed to escape to her own smaller estate once she turned eighteen. 

About 45 minutes after the end of the last course, when it was appropriate to leave, Toph and Sokka made their escape to Sokka's room. 

As Toph rummages around for some spare clothes she could wear, Sokka raids the cabinet for something that isn’t spice-related. 

“What did you find?” Toph asks as she unpins her hair and flops down on the bed. 

“Uhm,” Sokka checks the label on the package “Rice candy?”

“Are you kidding?!” Toph exclaims, “They stock your kitchen cabinet full of a week's worth of snack foods and all you can find is rice candy? That shits bland as fuck. Go look for fire gummies. ”

“Aren’t those spicy?”

“Yes. If you have to spend a week in here for some dumb birthday celebration, I’m making you eat spicy food. Now go look for fire gummies.”

The fire gummies are, surprisingly, not as spicy as Sokka expected. They are a near perfect mix of spicy and sweet. 

A couple minutes later, a knock sounds at the door. 

“Oh! I invited Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee over, if that's ok,” Toph says, opening the door and letting them in. 

_Yeah, yeah, totally fine. Just my sworn-enemy-turned-fake-friend and his closest friends no big deal._

“Oooh! Fire Gummies!” The girl Sokka assumes to be Ty Lee exclaims, waving the bag around in the air. “It’s been ages since I’ve had these, they’re so good!!” She pops one in her mouth. “Eh, not as spicy as I remembered. Nice to meet you, I’m Ty Lee!” She holds her hand out to Sokka, waiting for him to take it.

“Nice to meet you too, I’m Sokka,” Sokka says, shaking her hand.

“Do you have popsicles?” Zuko asks. “Sorry if that sounds random, we just never have them and they always stock up the visitors kitchen with treats.”

Sokka gestures vaguely to the kitchen “Knock yourself out.”

A couple minutes later, Zuko emerges with a box of popsicles. “Who wants one?” He asks.

Everybody raises a hand. 

After Zuko passes them out to everyone, they all turn to Sokka, as if expecting something.

“Why are you all looking at me?” He asks suspiciously.

“No reason,” Ty Lee chirps “It’s just you’ve never had these before and when people first taste them they usually-eep!”

Ty Lee cuts herself off with a squeak as Mai jabs her lightly in the ribs with her elbow. “Just taste it. You’ll see what she means.” Mai says in her normal bored tone, although this time with a slight smile on her face. 

Sokka sighs, _I'm going to regret this aren't I?_

The answer to that question was yes. 

He sits frozen in place for a while, staring at the popsicle in mute horror as Ty Lee and Toph laughed as they gasped for breath in the background.

“Popsicles are supposed to be cold!! Why is everything you make spicy??” Sokka wailes as he collapses onto his bed, screaming into the pillow. 

“Did you pick the ghost pepper flavour again?” Mai asks Zuko, who's currently trying very hard not to smile. 

“Maybe,” Zuko turns to Sokka “Are you ok?” He looks concerned, but Sokka is pretty sure he's secretly making fun of him. 

“No. But I'm finishing this popsicle out of pure spite and you can't stop me,” He growls angrily eating his offensively spicy popsicle. 

Later on in the night, Sokka notices a distinct change in how Mai and Zuko were acting from the dinner, and from any other encounter he had had with them before tonight. They smile and laugh easier, they tell jokes and act like actual humans for once. They are totally different people in their own private lives and Sokka finds himself liking them. 

Somehow, after many different snack taste tests and an argument over how many people could play Pai Sho (the real answer was two, but teams were a thing that Ty Lee insisted are considered an aspect of the game, much to Zuko's shagrin) he manages to corral them all into a group picture so he could post it on his social media accounts with the caption.

_Just a group of five insomniacs._

Instantly, his notifications were flooded with likes and comments and less than a minute after posting, his phone buzzed with a text from Liama:

**“Don’t give me a weird name or I’m telling your father.”**

**Good job for not messing this one up.**

_Ha ha._

The night ends soon after that, with Toph, Ty Lee, Mai, and Zuko all heading to their respective rooms. 

Somehow over the night, somebody slips a piece of paper into Sokka’s coat pocket. Pulling it out, he reads three names, each with a different phone number written next to it. Underneath it in a flowing script was:

**Can you also give these numbers to Toph? None of us know braille.Thanks!  
-Z**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone go subscribe to my lovely beta, @aseaofmemoriesandstorms !!! theyre amazing!! you wont regret it!!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are always appreciated! (I dont reply to them a lot, but I read all of them and sometimes reread them when I want some sweet serotonin.)


	5. The Turtleduck Fiasco

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Zukos eardrums are being assaulted by turtleducks, Sokka rants about the best ways to sneak into bars underage.

It is almost 8pm and Sokka had just finished his evening warrior training when his phone lights up with a text from Zuko

**Jerkbender**

**Can you shut the fuck up for 2 minutes please I’m begging you.**

The message is followed by a picture of a box or rather, an outline of one since the photo is dimly lit by far away lamps and moonlight.

Another buzz.

**Jerkbender**

**Wrong number sorry**

_No, now I'm interested._

_What’s in the box?_

Zuko's reply is another photo, except this one contained what seemed to be a baby bird. It looked like a duckling, except it had the body, shell and legs of a turtle. 

**Jerkbender**

_Awwe so cute!!_

_Is that a Turtleduck? I've never seen one before_

**Yep.**

**They’re cleaning out to pound and I volunteered to  
take care of them for the day.**

**The only problem is they won’t shut up. I can’t  
sleep.**

_I’m sure they sound ferocious._

**They aren’t scary just really fucking annoying.**

_Uh huh._

**Gimme a sec.**

What Sokka expects is an audio file, what he didn’t expect is for Zuko to Facetime him. Cursing, he grabs a towel and throws it over his bare shoulders, propping up his phone as he tries to dry out his dripping wet hair. 

“Uh, hi?” Zuko’s voice comes from his phone. 

“Hey,” Sokka says, keeping his tone casual “Sorry, I just got out of the shower, I just finished up my evening sword practice stuff. Anyways, what do the cute Turtleduckies sound like? ”

Zuko flips his phone camera around and walks over to the box that contains the Turtleducks. Their tiny chirps assault Sokka's eardrums as he hastily turns the volume down. After a while, Zuko flips the camera back to face him. “Now you get why I can’t sleep.”

“Yeah, I probably couldn’t fall asleep if they’re that loud either,” Sokka admitted. “You should just move to a different room, they’d probably be fine by themselves.”

Zuko shakes his head. “I promised I would take care of them. I probably won’t be able to go back to sleep, the sun rises in about two hours. I won’t be able to go back to sleep after that.”

Sokka groans “You’re one of those ‘rise with the sun’ people, huh?”

Zuko nods, face turning scarlet. 

“Well, I might just force you to live in the Northern Water Tribe palace like you made me do with the fire nation palace last month. That way you’ll be able to sleep enough since we started to stop getting sunlight a couple days ago.”

Zuko pales. “What?”

“Yeah, something to do with the rotation of the Earth. Every summer, we have 126 straight days of 24 hour sunlight, and every winter we have 94 days straight of 24 hour sunlight. That's why the moon festival is so important to us, it not only represents the solstice, but is almost exactly during the halfway point of our 94 days of darkness.”

Sokka stops talking and Zuko pauses, glancing over his shoulder.

“Whats going on?” Sokka asks curiously.

“I know this is going to sound crazy,” Zuko starts. “But I think your talking is shutting up the Turtleducks. Can you keep talking? I really need to sleep.”

“Sure!” Sokka is glad to keep talking. It is somewhat relaxing for him and he likes to explain things he is interested in to other people. 

About half an hour later, after putting on his pajamas and halfway through his dramatic retelling of how he managed to sneak into bars and clubs underage in the Fire Nation thanks to the pseudonym Wang Fire and a very convincing fake beard, he hears a small snore coming from the other side of the screen. 

Sokka glances over, and finds Zuko soundly asleep, the Turtleducks silent behind him.

_My work here is done._ He thinks smugly as he ends the facetime and finishes getting ready for bed.

The next morning, he sends three messenger hawks: one to Mai, another to Ty Lee, and the last one to Zuko. Each one invites them to the annual moon festival. After all, they are his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everyone go subscribe to my lovely beta, @aseaofmemoriesandstorms !!! they're amazing!! you wont regret it!!
> 
> Kudos and Comments are always appreciated! (I don't reply to them a lot, but I read all of them and sometimes reread them when I want some sweet serotonin.)


	6. Moon Festival Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sokkas gay awakening :) (im not giving you anything else)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sorry i made you wait (checks watch) ten days. bUT this is a back to back posting and this is a longer chapter than i am used to posting at a time because i needed .~*suspense*~.
> 
> also Sokkas a dumbass.

The Moon Festival arrives as it always did: with hours of meticulous planning in the War Room with Katara, (she spent four hours trying to figure out the proper color scheme) and with dozens of the worlds most famous and esteemed twenty-somethings ready to fucking party.

By the time Zuko, Mai, and Ty Lee arrive, the party is in full swing. Sokka only knew that Zuko and his friends had arrived because his phone buzzed with three texts in rapid succession.

**Jerkbender🐥**

**What the fuck is going on.**

**I’ve already been abandoned**

**Save me :(**

_Chill._

_*dramatic sigh* fine I’ll come find you_

**I’m by the west staircase**

Sokka sighs, _that literally couldn’t be any farther away from where I am standing._ Sokka pushes himself away from the table he was casually leaning against and makes his way to the edge of the dance floor, wandering around the edge of it until he spots Zuko

Zuko is exactly where he said he is: trying to become one with the shadows of the western staircase. 

“Two rules,” Sokka starts as he walks up to him, “One: don’t follow me around the entire night like a lost puppy. Two: attempt to have fun for once in your boring ass life.”

Zuko takes one look at Sokka and rolls his eyes. “Please don’t tell me you’re already drunk.”

“Well I was here when the party started _two hours ago_ so I think I should be allowed to be tipsy,” Sokka says with a frown.

“Right,” Zuko mutters, biting his lip and looking nervously down at his feet.

“Let’s go. I’m not spending the entire party moping with you in your corner.” Sokka grabs one of Zuko’s hands and tugs him in the general direction of the bar, not noticing the blush slowly spreading across the other prince’s cheeks.

Surprisingly, Zuko follows his instructions. About 45 minutes goes by before Sokka realizes that Zuko is no longer by his side. He doesn’t think much of it and spends the next hour losing himself in the loud music and twirling bodies on the dance floor. 

Midnight strikes and Sokka finds himself dancing with a very pretty girl from Ba Sing Se. The daughter of some court noble, he can’t remember which one. He doesn’t think she had exactly said, he is just expected to make the connection via her name which was _Naleh? Maileh? That’s probably not a good sign._ Before he can ask her anything, she twirls away from him and deeper into the messy crowd of the dance floor.

Subconsciously, Sokka feels someone’s eyes on him. Turning around, his eyes land on Zukos, aureate eyes fixated on him, watching. As Sokka's grin grows wider, Zuko’s glare deepens until his face settles into a mask, unreadable. Breaking eye contact, Zuko takes a swig from the bottle in his hands, _Champagne? Probably._ And fades back into the shadows. 

Stepping away from the dance floor, Sokka goes to look for Zuko. He searches all the closest rooms to the dance floor, all empty. He even asks Ty Lee, who shrugs and goes back to the crowd, drink in hand. Finally, he finds Mai, wiping the floor with some dudebros at darts, and points him towards the enclosed garden area. 

As he steps into the gardens, the music from the party faded to a dull thump. He breathes in the cool air, chilling his feverish skin. 

Zuko is standing by the snowdrops, white petals glowing in the light of the full moon, staring up at the night sky. 

“She’s beautiful, isn't she?” Sokka asks, coming up behind him. 

“Who?” Zuko whirls around to face Sokka, eyes flashing briefly in anger before his face settles back into an unreadable mask. 

Sokka gestures towards the night sky. “The moon.” he clarifies, running a hand through the few strands of white hair that had come loose from his warrior's wolf tail while he was dancing. 

Zuko noticeably relaxes, tilting his head up to gaze up at the moon with Sokka before he mutters. “What would your life be like if you were normal?”

“What do you mean?” Sokka asks, turning to look at Zuko, cheeks flush from the chill air and the alcohol in his system. 

“Like, if we were normal people. Civilians. And if we looked normal, you with normal hair and me with a normal, unscarred face. Would we be the same? Or would we be different? Would we be able to act like we want to instead of how we are told to act?” Zuko turns towards Sokka, eyes alight with something Sokka couldn't identify 

Sokka frowns, thinking for a bit before speaking “I’d for sure be a model. I’ve been on the cover of enough magazines to be a star. Those companies would be lucky to have my cheekbones on the cover.” He winks at Zuko with a grin. “What about you, princy? What would you do?”

Zuko shrugs. “I’d probably be a writer, or I’d work in my uncle’s tea shop.”

“Your uncle has a tea shop?” Sokka scoffs, rolling his eyes.

“No, but he would if he could,” Zuko smiles softly. “The only time he ever got mad at me was because I called tea ‘hot leaf juice’. We laughed about it for weeks.” 

“Can’t you be a writer?” Sokka asks, “Nobody is stopping you from writing or publishing anything. Go do it.”

Zuko shakes his head “Several people are stopping me, actually. Besides, I'm supposed to go into the military, like my sister is supposed to and like my cousin did.” His face contorts. “A lot of good that did him.”

Sokka inhales sharply, remembering a news headline from when he was ten. _Lu Ten Killed During Siege of Ba Sing Se, Royal Family in Mourning._ Zuko would have been only eleven years old. “Im sorry,” he murmurs, at a loss of what to say.

“Forget it,” Zuko says, the phrase slipping off of his tongue easily. “It was a long time ago. It’s just a bit hard to remember sometimes. Anyways,” he shrugs. “That’s not the only thing I’m not allowed to do. If I had a copper piece for every person I wasn’t allowed to date, I’d have a lot of fucking copper pieces. ” 

“Really?” Sokka wonders outloud, “There have been a lot of sightings of you on dates with girls. It makes the gossip magazines go nuts.”

Zuko gives him a funny look, “It’s not dating specifically, just the types of people I’m not allowed to date. All girls are fine, as long as they fall on the approved list. Other people, people who I actually am interested in, I’m not allowed to date. Does that make sense?”

“I couldn’t be more confused,” Sokka deadpans. “Are there not girls you’re interested in?”

“There are people that I am interested in,” Zuko says slowly, “But they are not people that I should be with. Or people who my father would ever, in a million years, approve me to be with. Does that make sense?”

“Nope,” Sokka states, popping the p.

“You really don’t get it?”

“No idea.”

“You really, really don’t get it? Seriously? I couldn’t be more clear.”

Sokka sighs. “Look, you can keep asking me until the Buffalo Yaks come home, and I still wouldn’t get it. So can you just get to the fucking一mphf!”

He is abruptly cut off as Zuko surges forwards and kisses him. Zuko kisses him hesitantly, soft and chaste, barely a brush of the lips. The type of kiss one can ignore easily. 

However, once Sokka can fully comprehend what is going on, he drunkenly thinks _That’s it?_ And moves to kiss him back. This time pressing their lips together with much more urgency while his hand finds his way to the nape of Zuko's neck, curling delicately around the hair that fell loose from his top knot there. 

Once again, Sokka moves to deepen the kiss, and Zuko obliges by sliding and opening his mouth. Sokka sighs as their tongues brush against each other, moving his hand as he grabs the hair at Zuko's roots near the nape of his neck. At this action, one of them makes a noise from the back of their throat, breaking the hush that filled the gardens and knocking the breath out of him.

As quick as Zuko was to move towards him, he's moving away. Eye wide as he rushes out of the greenhouse, muttering curses and apologies as he goes, leaving Sokka alone.

“What the fuck,” he starts, speaking to a now empty greenhouse, “Just happened?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kudos and Comments are highly appreciated!
> 
> subscribe to by lovely beta   
> @aseaofmemoriesandstorms


	7. bipanicbipanicbipanicbipanic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> before you frantically scroll, there is no Zuko in this chapter :)))) (fine. he appears but only for like, five seconds.)
> 
> but it does include Suki and her knives so that counts for something right??

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my sister found out im writing this and is now severely disappointed in me. *glances at 1500 hits* worth it.

Sokka can't stop thinking about the kiss, or more accurately, kisses. Plural. More annoyingly, he has no one to talk about the kiss(es) with. What did it mean? Zuko definitely didn’t seem unhappy when Sokka pulled in for another kiss, but also hightailing it out of the greenhouse and disappearing onto an airship back to the Fire Nation with Ty Lee and Mai less than five minutes after it happened didn’t exactly make it seem like he was that into it either, even though he was the one to initiate the kiss.

Also, more importantly, Sokka isn’t into guys. At least, he thinks he isn’t into guys. Before last night he was ninety percent sure he isn’t into guys and now he’s like, eighty percent sure. Ok. he’s a lot less sure that he isn’t into guys, he just doesn’t want to admit it.

_Spirits, I’m an asshole._ He screams into his pillow. Sighing, he pulls out his phone, glances over the two unreplied texts sent from him to Zuko, (emphasis on unreplied, the asshole read them immediately after they were sent. He even had the _audacity_ to let his typing bubble appear for five seconds before disappearing again) and opens his chat with Suki, still seething over that fact that _Zuko wouldn’t fucking reply to his texts._

**Sword Lesbian**

_Suki._

_Suki._

_Suki._

**What do you want from me.**

_I need your opinion on something._

**I stayed over last night, three doors down  
from you to the left. Bother me when you  
decide to see me in person.**

_👀👀👀_

**I’m ALONE jeez.**

“Again, what do you want from me?” Suki asks as she opens the door to her temporary room. 

“I have a question,” Sokka states, moving to sit down on a chair near the alight fireplace.

“Shoot,” Suki says as she settles down in the chair across from him.

“How did you realize you were gay?” 

Suki arches an eyebrow. “Once I learned that there was nothing keeping me from dating other women, I knew.”

“Right,” Sokka nods “So hypothetically, do you think I might be gay?”

“Hypothetically,” Suki articulates, “I feel like that’s your decision. But, hypothetically, you can come to me when you make your decision and we can have a hypothetical conversation about it.”

Sokka nods and stands to get out of his chair, turning to leave when Suki speaks up again.

“And Sokka?”

“Yeah?” he turns to face her, hand on the doorknob.

“This is one of the questions where asking it gives you the answer. If that makes sense.”

“It does. Thank you.”

~~~

A week later, he is on a trip to the Foggy Swamp Tribe to check in on the process of making them an official water tribe member and requests a short stay on Kyoshi Island after the planning period. He is the plan guy after all and he, as a non-bender, isn’t much help to those trying to build communication posts, so everyone decided the best idea was to stay out of the way and enjoy the company of his friend. 

The only problem with him staying six days on the island is that there is nothing to do and he is currently bored out of his mind. So, he helps Suki with training sessions, (mostly as her sparring partner or an example of how to execute a move properly, he has a lot of bruises.) and puts up with Suki's interrogation tactics to figure out who the guy he kissed was. 

He is staring at his phone again, as if he could will a text from Zuko into existence. 

**Jerkbender🐥**

**Im by the west staircase**

Jan 2nd 10:30 pm

_Hello??_

_Where are you?_

_Dont disappear on me again, Sparky._  
Jan 3rd 12:12 pm

_Can we talk?_  
Jan 5th 10:30 pm

_Please?  
Read Jan 5th, 10:31 pm_

“Has the mystery man texted you back yet?” Suki asks, currently trying to balance a sai on her fingertip. 

“Nope,” says Sokka, tossing his phone so it lands at Suki's feet. She picks up the phone and gives him a pleading look. He sighs. “I don't care anymore. Go for it.”

Suki grins as she unlocks his phone and opens his messages. He tries to hide under the pillows and blankets of her bed before she chucks his phone back at him.

“You made out with the fucking prince of the Fire Nation?!” She shouts as Sokka burrows further underneath her comforter. 

“He kissed me first!” Sokka replies, voice muffled from the layers of blankets and pillows protecting his head. 

“You are such a dumbass,” Suki mutters fondly, which meant it was safe to come out now. “What are you going to tell him? You obviously like him.”

Sokka crawls out from the covers and shrugs. “Corner him during the next diplomatic meet and see how it goes. He’s obviously ghosting me so it’s not like I can invite him somewhere and expect him to come.”

Suki rolls her eyes. “Need I remind you how well your last un-scripted and sober encounter went with him? You guys crushed a sculpture.”

“Rude. Toph and I managed to deal with him, Mai, and Ty Lee perfectly well during Azula’s week long birthday celebration. Besides, there’s a thingie at the end of the month that he’s bound to show up for. I’ll talk to him then.” He turns and catches Suki looking at him weird. “What?”

She shakes her head. “It’s nothing, I’m just thinking.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos and commets are always appreciated!
> 
> follow by beta  
> @aseaofmemoriesandstorms


	8. Ladies, Theydies, and Gentlemen, (here comes the makeout scene!) the moment you've been waiting for!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zuko has been ghosting Sokka.
> 
> Sokka is mad.
> 
> Sokka corners Zuko at a dinner party.
> 
> Shenanigans ensue.
> 
> .  
> .  
> .
> 
> Also Aang is in this one :))

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAAAAAAAAA IM SO SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE! I've been really busy with life stuff and this is a pretty long chapter soooooo

As Sokka expects, Zuko is at the dinner as a diplomat of the Fire Nation. Also as Sokka expects, he is still avoiding him.

“So what’s our plan of action?” Toph says, scaring Sokka enough that he almost falls out of his chair. 

“What?” Sokka replies, eyes still trained on Zuko, who is pointedly not looking in his direction.

“With Zuko,” Toph says as if it is obvious, “Are you going to get him alone by yourself or do you need my help?”

“How-how do you know?” Sokka stutters, “Did Suki tell you?”

“What? No! I just figured it out by myself. I notice things most people can’t.” 

“Like what?”

“Like how your heart rate speeds up when you’re near him. Stuff like that. If you need my help, let me know.” She turns back to her soup.

Sokka waits until the dessert course starts before he fills Toph in on his plan.

“Once this course ends and we’re allowed to mill about as the other rooms prepared, I need you to distract Mai and Ty Lee so I can pull Zuko away from the party.”

“Distraction. Got it. Are they allowed to join bingo?”

“Yeah sure I don’t care,” Sokka says quickly as he grabs his fork, wanting this course to be over as soon as possible. Once their plates are cleared and people start to get up and converse with the other guests, Sokka squeezes Toph’s arm to let her know it’s time.

Immediately, Toph makes a beeline towards Mai and Ty Lee, pulling out her phone as she energetically tells them something. They look down at her phone with interest.

Sokka waits to talk to Zuko, instead approaching Itudi, who is currently guarding the room next to the dining room, where the party would soon move to.

“Itudi,” He hisses as he approaches her.

Her eyes widen as she takes in his distressed state. “What’s wrong? Where’s the threat?” She asks, already moving her hand to signal the other security members.

“It’s not that. I need help. I need to get prince Zuko alone. To talk to him in private.”

“I can escort you outside if you need to talk to him but I need to alert other security staff first,” She responds.

“No,” Sokka says with exasperation. “I need him _alone._ Alone.” 

Her eyes widen slightly in realization. “The best I can do is the room open for after-dinner cocktails.”

“How long can I have?”

She checks her watch and sets a timer. “Seven minutes.”

Sokka sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I can work with that.” He mutters,trying to convince himself more than Itudi, and turns on his heel to approach Zuko.

Somehow, Toph manages to also rope Zuko into the conversation. _There goes that hope. Whatever. I am going to go through with this._ Sokka plants himself in between Zuko and Mai, cornering Zuko.

“Hi,”Sokka says shortly as Mai and Ty Lee share a look. He grabs Zuko’s arm, pulling him away from the circle. “Sorry. Have to go. Official fancy diplomatic stuff.” Marching him to Itudi, he stops in front of the door.

“Are you going to kill him?” She asks, voice laced with concern as she turns the knob to open the door. Sokka glances over his shoulder. Toph is giving him a thumbs up and he could have sworn he sees Ty Lee and Mai exchanging money. 

“I haven’t decided yet,” Sokka replies sweetly, hauling Zuko into the room with him as Itudi closes the door behind him. 

“What is going on?” Zuko asks once the door is fully shut.

“We’re talking,” Sokka says through clenched teeth as he grabs Zuko’s collar to lead him further away from the door and across the Polar Bear rug. 

“This doesn't look like talking,” Zuko deadpans, eyes frantic. “This looks more like you abducted me from my friends and dragged me into this room to do _spirits know what._ ”

“Can you shut the fuck up,” Sokka moves his other hand to Zukos collar and shoves him up against the wall. “For two seconds?”

Zuko makes a disgruntled noise as he makes his “I’m about to say something kinda offensive but that’s just because I’m shit with social cues” face. Sokka prefers for Zuko to not ruin the mood with snarky commentary so he decides to get revenge on Zuko in the best way possible.

Shutting him up with a kiss like Zuko did to him less than a month ago under the light of the full moon.

Sokka does just that. He crushes their mouths together and feels Zuko relax into the kiss. Honestly, Sokka was more than a bit worried going into this, worried that their moment under the stars was truly nothing more than a drunken error and his panic over the past month was all for nothing.

But this kiss. _It’s everything._ Maybe it’s because Sokka went into this with a hastily thought out plan and a mind that was quick to assume the worst of things in a twisted way to keep his expectations low. But this kiss makes Sokka wonder why he didn’t take an airship to the Fire nation capital just so he could show Zuko how that first kiss made him feel. Sokka could kick himself just thinking about how good it would have been if they hadn't been running circles around each other for months. 

“Wait,” Zuko says, breaking off the kiss. His pupils are blown and he has a feverish blush creeping across his cheeks and touching the tips of his ears. He looks like a mess. 

_I did that._ Sokka thinks proudly as he waits per Zuko’s request. 

“Is this how it's supposed to work?” Zuko asks, still backed against the wall. 

“What?”

“It's just we have a lot of stuff we have to do, including several NDAs and conversations with our family about it, not to mention, applying for courtship as a same sex couple in the Fire Nation- ”

“Stop talking.” Sokka cuts him off, taking in Zuko's worried expression, he softens his voice. “Hey. we can worry about that stuff later ok? Right now I want to focus on destroying your face with my face.”

“Yeah. ok. cool.”

This causes Sokka to, in an unplanned move, sweep everything off of the table pushed up against the wall next to them and picks Zuko up, dropping him onto the now bare tabletop. 

Sokka ignores the way the portrait of the Northern Water Tribe’s first chief (which is hung up on the wall above the table that Zuko is now sitting on) is glaring down at him and continues to destroy Zuko’s face with his mouth.

Sokka isn’t entirely sure when the kiss turned a bit extreme. Maybe it was destined to be that way from the start. This is a very short way of saying that Zuko now has his legs wrapped around Sokka's waist and Sokka is halfway through the process of tearing Zuko's ridiculously ornate robe off. 

‘’Times almost up!” Itudi shouts from the other side of the door.“You have 2 minutes to make yourselves presentable!”

They freeze. Zuko’s hips, just slightly, push back up against Sokkas. Sokka swears and disentangles himself from Zuko, sweeping up the knick knacks that fell to the floor and placing them back on the table. 

Sokka swears again. “People are going to start coming in here soon and you-” he turns to Zuko. Zuko is, to put it nicely, a fucking mess. His hair which was once meticulously brushed up into a topknot falls loose, his robe is noticeably rumpled and he- Sokka pointedly does not look below his waist level. 

“From the look on your face I'm guessing it's not good,” Zuko says drily, trying and failing to fix his topknot without a mirror or comb.

“Tui and La, let me help,” Sokka mutters, moving towards Zuko and grabbing the comb he put in his furs pocket a half hour before the dinner started (what could he say, he is the plan guy after all), swiftly fixing Zuko’s hair and straightening his shirt. “I tried to mimic the Fire Nation style but I've only braided girls hair and done wolf tails so I'm sorry if it doesn't look right.”

“It’s fine, Sokka,” Zuko says with a smile. 

Just then, the doors open and other members start to flood into the room. Sokka and Zuko manage to blend into the crowd of people spilling in, Zuko leaving to find Mai and Ty Lee and Sokka leaving to find Katara and Toph. Sokka spots them talking to a member from the Air Nomads around Toph’’s age, sporting the shaved head, traditional robes, and blue arrow tattoos of a master airbender. 

“Sokka!” Katara waves him over “Can you believe this guy is the Avatar?!”

“Really?” Sokka asks, impressed. He had heard stories of Avatar Aang, like how he saved The Southern Air Temple and its occupants from death by going into the Avatar State for 100 years. “I imagined you...” Sokka looks the airbender up and down, not believing this kid was a day over 20, let alone 36,890. (Yes, he included leap years too, thank you very much) “Older?”

Avatar Aang laughs “I get that a lot strangely enough!”

Katara smiles. “What are you doing here? This was only a small diplomatic meeting, we’d hardly expect a _celebrity_ to be here.” Sokka rolls his eyes, then stifles his laughter as Toph makes a gagging gesture behind Katara. 

“I’m pretty sure Avatar duties extend to politics,” Aang replies. He frowns “At least, I think that’s what Kuruk told me. But also Kyoshi told me to never trust Kuruk because he was a coward and a dumbass. Her words, not mine.”

“What the fuck is he talking about?” Sokka mutters under his breath to Toph.

“The dead people inside his head, Sokka. Everybody who paid attention in school, or in our case, tutor sessions knows this.” Toph whispers back loudly. It didn't matter, nobody else was paying attention to them. Sokka glances around the room and his eyes meet Zukos. They both blush and look away quickly. 

Sokka turns his attention back to Avatar Aang who was talking about all the dumb shit he did 109 years back, at least that’s what Sokka thinks he is talking about. _What the fuck even is an air scooter?_

The rest of the night, as the dinner party winds down and people start going home on airships or going to bed, Sokka retires to his room and sends Zuko a quick message.

**Jerkbender 🐥**

_Come to my room in a half hour ;)  
_

_If you ghost me again i'm going to sic Toph on you :))_  


_Understood?_  
Read at 10:25 pm  


**ok.**  
~~~

“Are you here because you’re attracted to me or because you're afraid of Toph?” Sokka greets Zuko when he knocks at Sokka’s door at 10:52 pm.

Zuko shrugs and gives Sokka one of his rare but genuine smiles “It's about 50/50.”

Sokka rolls his eyes, flashing his own grin. “Just come in.”  
~~~  
“Can you please stop,” Zuko groans, raising up a hand to swat at Sokka’s which is currently shoving his shoulder.

“Not until you move,” Sokka replies, still pushing Zuko’s right shoulder, “My arm is falling asleep. Unless you want to blame yourself for my arm falling off due to lack of circulation, you should move.”

“That’s not how that works,” Zuko mutters as he begrudgingly sits up and frees Sokka’s arm. Zuko looks at the clock and sighs. “I should probably head back.” 

“Noooo,” Sokka whines, already pulling Zuko in for a hug so he can’t leave. 

“I really have to go,” Zuko insists, trying to extract himself from Sokka’s grip to no avail.

“Illegal. You’re too warm,” Sokka says as he pulls Zuko in tighter, “You don’t want me to freeze, do you?”

“Sokka, your bed has a fuckton of blankets and pillows. You’ll survive without my body heat.”

Sokka sighs dramatically, flopping back down on his bed. “Fine. Just if I die of hypothermia tonight, remember it’s your fault.”

“If you do something stupid like sleep in the snow to spite me, I’m going to kill you,” Zuko threatens, voice holding no malice.

“Too late. I’d already be dead.” 

“Whatever.” Zuko pulls Sokka in for one last kiss. “Goodnight, idiot. I’ll see you soon.”

With that he is gone, quietly slipping out of Sokka’s chambers and leaving him alone.

Sokka wakes up the next day to see a text from Zuko.

**Jerkbender 🐥  
**

**I have a sword competition next week.**  


**Do you want me to reserve a seat for you?**

Sokka smiles, biting the inside of his cheek in an attempt to hide his grin from Katara, who is sitting right next to him for breakfast. 

**Jerkbender 🐥**  


_Im sure I can find some room in my schedule :)  
_

__

_See you then!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kudos and commets are always appreciated!
> 
> subscribe to my beta  
> @aseaofmemoriesandstorms


	9. idk what to title this but they homoerotically dual and thats the important part tbh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> gays with swords

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *comes back after two months*  
> *throws chapter at you*  
> *fucks off again to write angst for a later point in this fic*

The week went by in a flurry, Sokka’s days filled with peace meetings, which now include Avatar Aang among the diplomats. He was staying for a week and then going off to the Fire Nation, then the Southern Water Tribe, then the Earth Kingdom, etc… as a way to let the nations harmonize and work together as one again.

He was, surprisingly, a very chill dude. He refused to spar with Sokka, instead showing him how he used his glider to fly. One time he tried to ride a Polar Orca which was cool until he fell into the ocean and was rescued by Katara, who was “playing lifeguard to make sure your dumbasses don't drown” but all in all, Sokka’s time with him was without incident.

Aang left one day before Sokka did, although both were invited to Zuko’s competition, so they still planned on seeing eachother soon. Aang also invited Katara as his plus one. Weird. If anything, it would just be harder for Sokka to find some alone time with Zuko, and he said so over a late night conversation with him.

**Jerkbender 🐥**

**Don't worry about that.  
I have a plan.**

_Holy shit that has got to be the most  
attractive thing you’ve ever said to me._

**That kind of makes sense.  
I'm bad at flirting.**

_Yeah…_

**And you can't tell when people are flirting with you!  
How we ended up together, I do not know.**

_asjkdfbsahasknjsf_

Finally, the day of Zuko’s competition arrives, and Sokka steps off of his airship with Katara to see Aang and Ty Lee, both bouncing with excitement, and Mai who was not bouncing but still excited.

“Let’s go find our seats!” Aang says excitedly, taking Katara by the arm and leading her off of the platform and towards the arena.

“Sokka is coming with us. Zuko scored us tickets in the royal box,” Mai says, her and Ty Lee linking an arm with Sokka, leading him off. 

“We’ll meet up later!! I promise!!!” Sokka shouts over his shoulder as he is dragged to the arena by Mai and Ty Lee.

A couple of minutes before the event starts, they are all settled in their seats with plenty of snacks to go around, (he was actually starting to warm up to spicy foods. Heh. Get it?!) when a scary girl sits down next to Ty Lee.

Mai avoids her gaze as Ty Lee happily chats with her. Suddenly, the scary girl turns to him, speaking over Ty Lee.

“I’m Princess Azula. You must be Zuzu’s…. friend.” Already Sokka disliked her (the way Zuko avoided talking about his family at all and how he was obviously avoiding her at her own birthday party also kind of attributed to it.)

Azula looked Sokka up and down, taking in his tense posture with an arrogant curl of her upper lip. “Right. If anything, I’m surprised he remembered how to make them! For years it’s only been Zuzu, Mai, Ty Lee and I. But now he’s running off with a couple of random water tribesmen and a blind earth bender! It’s really quite funny. I think he should start being with people of a _higher caliber._ He’s never going to get a proper wife if he is constantly hanging out with your kind. No offense.” She bats her eyelashes and gives Sokka a sickeningly sweet smile when she says those last two words.

Sokka’s left eye twitches. But before he could respond, Mai speaks up for the first time since taking her seat in the box. 

“We’re here to watch Zuko kick some ass, not to watch his sister stir up more drama. I’ve had enough for my lifetime.” She rolls her eyes and turns Sokka away from Azula, giving him a incredibly detailed update on what is going on in the “Bingo Hoes” group chat (Sokka and Zuko weren’t allowed in because they could throw the game.) including who is winning, the types of squares that were filled in, and the number of times Toph has cussed someone in the chat out within the last 24 hours (56).

This distracts Sokka from Azula's annoying ass face and opinions until the event starts.

Zuko walks out in his (idk what to say here words words words) and Sokka’s brain short circuits. Due to the tradition of this event, there will be three rounds, each one with two different masked fighters hailing from different kingdoms- some royalty, like Zuko, and some reluctant volunteers eager to prove their worth to the Fire Lord. As the competitors for the first round step onto the platform, Sokka recognizes which one Zuko is immediately. He is wearing a blue and white mask that covers the entirety of his face that is reminiscent of a play Sokka once saw as a child.

“Battling with dual broadswords hailing from the Fire Nation is the Blue Spirit!” the announcer calls as the crowd cheers loudly, and Zuko turns to Sokka, lifts up his mask just barely and- _Did he just wink at me?!_ Sokka wonders as the announcer turns to Zuko’s competitor.

“Today is a special day, folks because we have a volunteer from the Earth kingdom!” The crowd boos. “He calls himself the Freedom Fighter and his weapons of choice are dual hook swords, also known as Tiger Head swords!”

True to his name, the Freedom Fighter had placed a mask similar to the face of a Tigerdillo that covered the upper half of his face. Besides his mask, he was wearing a simple blue robe over beat up body armour. If Sokka squinted he could see a piece of wheat dangling from the Freedom Fighter’s mouth. 

With a loud bell, the match starts. 

“How exactly does this work?” Sokka mutters to Mai as Zuko and the Freedom Fighter swipe at each other with their swords. Zuko gracefully dodging attacks, and the Freedom Fighter clumsily blocking Zuko’s. He was obviously not professionally trained otherwise he would fight with the same effortlessness Zuko did.

Not tearing her gaze from the match, Mai answers him. “There are four judges on the panel, each one responsible for grading each fighter in one of the four chategories. Agility, stamina, overall success, and style of swordsmanship. They are only given the competitors aliases as to avoid any potential grading bias which is why Zuko is masked. At the end of the match they total up the points, and the competitor with the most points wins. All of the systems are set on a scale from one to twenty except for overall success which is a five if you lose, fifteen if you draw, and twenty five if you win.”

“Huh.” Sokka watches as Zuko blocks the Freedom Fighter’s latest hit and vaults over his competitor. Which is unnecessary but stylish. “So even if you lose, you could still win by scoring higher in all the other categories?”

Mai nods slowly. “Hypothetically, yes. But that is rarely the case. Most of the time the winner is the one with the better score because they not only won but had the better style, agility, and stamina as well.”

Obviously, Zuko wins the match, and Sokka leaves to find him with some bullshit excuse to Azula about having to go to the bathroom and check up on his sister (which he does before finding Zuko but that’s hardly the point.) 

Sokka is walking down the hall when he bumps into the Freedom Fighter, his tigerdillo mask pushed halfway up his face. The Freedom Fighter takes one look at him and grunts, “The prince is in there.” Pointing a thumb over his shoulder at the door behind him before heading off in the other direction. 

Sokka shoots a confused look at the Freedom Fighter’s retreating form as he opens the door revealing a very sweaty and very shirtless Zuko.

“What's his deal?” Sokka asks, jabbing a thumb in the general direction where the Freedom Fighter disappeared off to. 

“Who?” Zuko looks up from the scroll he is reading, “Oh. Jet? He's part of some Earthen rebellion thing. He was already pretty mad when he lost to Fire Nation, so you can imagine his rage when he found out I'm actually the crown prince. What's up?” Zuko tosses his scroll aside, leaning back and looking up at Sokka casually.

Sokka forces himself to stop looking at Zuko’s bare torso and unsheathes his jian sword. “I'm here to challenge you to a duel,” he declares in a dramatic way worthy of the Ember Island Players as he settles into the proper stance, angling his blade to his eye level. Zuko makes no move to stand up.

“I just got out of a competition five minutes ago. I’m resting.” Zuko takes a sip of his water.

Sokka stands up and pouts, sword dangling loosely from his grasp. “C’mon, dude. SpaceSword™️ was a _bitch_ to convince Mai to help me smuggle through security.” Zuko continues to stare blankly at him. “Please??” Sokka whines. Zuko stays silent. 

“Okay,” Sokka says, sheathing his sword and turning on his heel. “I was planning on going easy against you and using the duel as an excuse to shove you against a wall and make out for a while but if you aren’t up to that I’ll just leave...” Sokka moves towards the door.

“Wait,” Zuko says. Sokka turns around with a grin as Zuko begrudgingly stands up and mops the sweat off of his face.

“I will accept your challenge,” Zuko starts as Sokka cheers. “Only if you make out with me, no matter who wins.”

“On the spirits, I swear I will make out with you.” Sokka settles into his fighting stance again. “Now let’s do this. Come at me bro.”

Zuko slumps and makes a face “Bro? Are you kidding me?”

“Sorry hot stuff I’m bad with nicknames. Can’t find ones thats arent too friendly but aren’t too lovey dovey.”

“ _Hot stuff?_ ” Zuko says in disbelief, cheeks turning pink.

“It fits,” Sokka insists, “Because you're hot and you're also hot hot.” he wiggles his eyebrows to emphasize it.

“I’m dating an idiot,” Zuko groans, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“I’m not an idiot!” Sokka squawks, “I just devote my brain cells to other smart person things like math and inventing shit.”

“Okay Mr. Zero life skills whatsoever, lets fight.”

“That’s a lot coming from you,” Sokka mutters under his breath as he unsheaths his SpaceSword™© and levels the blade to his eye level once more. 

Zuko rolls his eyes and grabs his dual broadswords, not bothering to put his tunic back on. Sokka pretends like it wasn’t distracting him. It was very much distracting him. 

Zuko takes the first move, both swords moving at the same time less like they were a tool to be used, but as an extension of his body. Sokka holds his ground and blocks the attack, dancing nimbly out of the way before Zuko can strike again. 

They continue the same song and dance for a while, trading jabs and trying to land a blow on the other and failing. Until Zuko manages to back Sokka into a corner. Smacking the side of Sokka’s wrist with the flat of one of his swords, he sends Sokka’s SpaceSword™©®️ clattering to the ground, leaving Sokka weaponless. In a flash, Sokka is backed against the wall with Zuko leaning over him as the blades form an X shape across his chest, forcing him to stay.

“I win.” Zuko taunts. 

“Aww I really tried that time,” Sokka pouts. Then, remembering what he was promised, he perks up again “Could you maybe lower your stabby swords so you don’t slit my throat?”

Zukko huffs out a laugh and seathes his swords. “Is that better?” he asks, leaning in.

Sokka nods eagerly and leans down to initiate the kiss. It’s soft and warm, and Sokka gently cradles the back of Zuko’s neck, inviting him to move in closer. Zuko nods and deepens the kiss, moving his hands to the small of Sokka's back. Then, without warning, the door to the training room opens, with a familiar voice following it.

“Hey, Sokka! Jet said I could find you in here and Aang was wondering if- oh. I’ll just- I'll just come back later.” The door slams shut. 

Sokk and Zuko stare at each other, moment over. 

Sokka is the first to move, covering his face with his hands and screaming into them as he slowly slides down the wall. He hears Zuko settle on the ground next to him. 

“Who was that?” Zuko asks as Sokka peeks through his hands, concerned golden eyes  
meeting terrified blue ones.

Sokka removes his hands from his face and takes a deep breath. “Katara,” He whispers.

All the color drains from Zuko’s face. 

“Fuck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *banging pots and pans*  
> Y'ALL KNOW THE DRILL
> 
> 1\. Subscribe to my beta:@aseaofmemoriesandstorms  
> 2\. Follow me on my tumblr @bookish-ginger (I'm trying to be more active on there, send me asks! talk to me!)
> 
> Fave beta quote: "mans is a wholeass BIRD"


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